Sunday, December 04, 2016

Federal Officials to Explore Different Route for Dakota Pipeline

Theresa Sandoval, of the Red
Willow Tribe in northern New Mexico, bringing firewood back to her North
Dakota camp early Sunday morning.Credit
Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times

Federal
officials announced on Sunday that they would not approve permits for
construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a dammed section of
the Missouri River that tribes say sits near sacred burial sites.

The
decision is a victory for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of protesters
camped near the construction site who have opposed the project because
they said would it threaten a water source and cultural sites. Federal
officials had given the protesters until tomorrow to leave a campsite
near the construction site.

In
a statement on Sunday, the Department of the Army’s assistant secretary
for Civil Works, Jo-Ellen Darcy, said that the decision was based on a
need to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing.

“Although
we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with
the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it’s clear that there’s more
work to do,” Ms. Darcy said. “The best way to complete that work
responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the
pipeline crossing.”

Dave
Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe,
expressed gratitude for “the courage it took on the part of President
Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of
the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and to do
the right thing.”

Tribal
officials had criticized the route because of the potential damage to
the tribe’s drinking water and that it would disrupt sacred lands.

The company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners of Dallas, has said that it was unwilling to reroute the project.